So many people showed up at the Calcasieu Parish Planning and Zoning Board’s Tuesday meeting, the room couldn’t hold all of them. Thirty to 40 people had to wait outside. Seats were filled. People lined up along both walls. Most were there to represent opposition to plans that would advance a solar array project.

The board voted to defer the request by American Sulphur and Oil Company for a rezone of about 3,600 acres of land from agricultural to industrial for a solar farm to be developed by Aypa. The property, used for timber production in the past, is mostly in Calcasieu Parish, but some of it is in Jeff Davis.

The board will take up the matter again Nov. 19, and one member suggested that AYPA notify and meet with the people in the community the solar farm will affect before that date.

Prior to the vote, the board heard from Aypa’s attorney, John Pohorelsky, and asked those signed up to speak to stick to the topic at hand — the motion to defer.

Jules Manuel of Moss Bluff asked the board to put the project on pause for the next year “to give our friends in the Capitol at Baton Rouge a workable procedure that can guide us.”

Dean Rougeau veered from the topic when he told the board he worked in the solar and wind energy sector in Washington State before moving to Moss Bluff four years ago.

“There’s nothing green about solar panels,” he said. “The chemicals they use in those things are toxic and you can’t burn ’em. You can’t waste ’em. They have to go and bury them.”

Chancey Plaisance of Topsy said allowing eight months or a year wouldn’t hurt the company.

“Time does matter,” Pohorelsky said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at the state regs, but I’ve spoken with the legislators from this area and I’ve been told that the draft promulgation from the state is not as robust as our ordinance. So, waiting for an ordinance from the state that doesn’t even match the strength of what we have here makes no sense.”

In a phone conversation the next day, Wes Crain, Calcasieu Parish Planning and Development director told the American Press he disagreed with one of the speakers who told the board “the ordinances we have right now are inadequate.”       

“I am not saying our ordinance is perfect,” Crain said. “No ordinance is, but I will say that we spent a great deal of time researching other ordinances across the country, assembled this ordinance and had it vetted. I feel like we have a pretty strong ordinance in our area.”

It has been in place since 2022 and includes restrictions such as setback, buffer, landscaping, screening and fencing. A bond is collected in advance of construction to cover the decommissioning of the project, which means removing everything solar farm related from the property.

One woman in the audience wrongly thought that AYPA would not have to meet any restrictions. In addition to the parish ordinance, AYPA will also have to meet state and federal guidelines.

But that’s not what the Tuesday meeting was about. Tuesday’s meeting was about a first step in the process, getting land for the solar farm project rezoned.

“During the course of the solar farm ordinance adoption, the Police Jury felt as though placing solar farms in agricultural areas was viable because of land mass,” Crain said. “You can’t put it on a one-acre lot.”